


The dust choked his throat

by gingeringfigs



Series: Naruto Short Stories [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Naruto U. & Sasuke U.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-25
Updated: 2008-10-25
Packaged: 2017-10-16 02:27:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/167442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingeringfigs/pseuds/gingeringfigs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been three long years. What was Naruto thinking when he saw Sasuke for the first time in Orochimaru's lair?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The dust choked his throat

# The dust choked his throat...

# 

It had been just as hot and sunny that day at the Valley of End. The sky was void of clouds, the merciless azure beat down on him as heavily as Sasuke's leaden obsidian eyes. His sweat sodden clothes clung unbearably to his flushed skin and the lapels of his headband tickled his neck. His breathing was just as harsh as back then; wreary from the long chase that had been extended to three years. The dust kicked up from the remnants of his clumsy self choked his throat and Naruto wasn't sure that even without the dust, he would be able to voice the roiling emotions and questions that were as many as the leaves on the trees in Konoha.

All he could do was to return the leaden gaze and desperately try to read the perfect porcelain facade. It betrayed no cracks that had appeared and ultimately shattered the mask that day. Naruto envied that; the cracks in his own mask had only chipped away through the years until they gaped wide open like Kyuubi's maw. Dressed in that foreign apparel that revealed so much of his skin, Naruto recalled bittersweet memories of their innocence. Sasuke would not have willingly bared his body for secret fear of his fangirls and general prudery. No, he could see that little of what Sasuke had been, remained in the familiar arrogant figure that dared to blot the sun. He swallowed his pleas and accusations, a bitter pill, and held the bond.

Naruto was amazed and full of admiration when he felt the unfamiliar warmth and weight on his shoulder. In a blink of the eye, he had surpassed his expectations. He shivered as warm puffs of breath moved blond strands of his hair and tickled his ear and neck. He reeled from the overload of scents from Sasuke's body; his nose as sensitive as a fox's. Looking resolutely ahead, he bit out his reply to Sasuke's cold words and the sun's reflection in Sasuke's blade blinded him. He stiffened just afraction as his hypersensitive skin felt the cold prick of steel on his back, just over where Sasuke had pierced his body with the chidori. Sasuke had tightened his grip the same fraction as well. In this awful moment of hypersensitivity and close contact, Naruto thought he was going insane and loved it all the same.

Struggling for dominance with Kyuubi, Naruto had known that he was truly going to become as insane as Gaara had. Weakened by his recent battles and Sasuke's cold words, he wasn't confident that he could hold out. Thus, it was with great wonderment/joy/fear when he heard Sasuke's cool voice command Kyuubi. He was afraid of Sasuke's rejection and filled with wonder at how Sasuke came to be in his most private sanctuary and with joy that Sasuke had come to stop the Kyuubi. Perhaps...there was hope that Sasuke still held onto the bond. He genuinely smiled for the first time in three years and hoped.

 **Fin.**


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